Two years after introducing hempcrete to IStructE Wales, Wellspring and PHG return with a candid account of completing Pearson Way.

Two years ago, Wellspring and PHG introduced IStructE members to hempcrete: what it is, how it performs, and why we chose to build with it. This follow-up talk picks up the story since then, tracing the completion of Pearson Way, Neath — delivered through a perfect storm of Ukraine-war inflation and pent-up post-Covid construction demand that tested every assumption in our original business case. We'll share what we've learned refining hempcrete application on site, from drying times and detailing to managing trades unfamiliar with a "non-standard" material, and how those lessons are shaping our next developments.

But the real focus of this talk is what's happened since — the day-to-day reality of being a small, sustainability-focused housebuilder working in South Wales. We'll talk candidly about the trials of bringing forward new schemes through a planning system that can feel slow, inconsistent and resistant to change, where hard-won sustainability credentials like hempcrete rarely even enter the conversation. It's a talk about resilience as much as innovation: what it takes for an SME developer to keep building better homes when the wider system — financial, regulatory and cultural — isn't always built to help you.

Speaker

Hadleigh Hobbs and Pierre Grigorian, Directors of Wellspring

Hadleigh Hobbs and Pierre Grigorian are founders and Directors of Wellspring; Pierre is also a Director of PHG Consulting Engineers. Both are Chartered Structural Engineers; Pierre is a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers and past Chair of its Wales Region. Pierre founded PHG in 2013, now an employee-owned practice headquartered in Cardiff. Together they set up Wellspring to put that expertise into practice as developers, delivering "better-than-zero-carbon" homes in hempcrete — including the award-winning Llynfi Court and Pearson Way in Neath — and now grow their own hemp through Wellspring Agriculture.

(Talk is open to non-engineers).

Description supplied by the event organiser.